The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-05-26
SOME DARK TEACHINGS.
A PLANTATION NIGHT SCHOOL FOR
NEGROES BEFORE THE WAR.

NEGROES BEFORE THE WAR.
Some Entertaining Recollections OF the
Times Before the Civil War.
From New York Commercial Advertiser)
As is well known, it was held to be
against good policy in the South, in the
old days, chat the slaves should be taught
to read. To teach them was, IN fact,
prohibited by law i'll most of the States.
1t would be an error to suppose, how
ever, that none of them were so taught.
For the master of the plantation was, In
many ways, an absolute monarch-overy
farm o sort of kingdom-and these
potentates chose to Judge for themselves
how strict should be their obedience to
general laws, how far they would allow
themselves to be controlled by the Legis-
lature in the internal economy of their
little principalitics.
Southern planters were in the habit of
having such of their slaves taught to
read as they chose-law or no law. I,
myself, at the age of twelve, was princi
pal of q school consisting of half q dozen
of mine and others slaves; and some ac-
count of my methods may interest the
teachers, professors and other iterati of
our day.
The object of the school was the high
est possible. Indeed, it was not
school, nor even college; it was theo-
logical seminary. All my pupils were
preparing for the ministry.
TO this day [ remember with pride
how thoroughly unsectarian was my in
struction. ] made no effort to bull those
slaves into accepting my dogmas, as
proof of which L offer the fact that
whereas was then, as now, sturdy
upholder Of Episcopalianism, every one
of my graduates turned Baptist.
l held my school in the kitchen after
supper. My pupils sat in row Oh d
bench, one of their number holding
aloft spluttering torch of fat pine. 1t
gave strong if unsteady light; but was
subject to this drawback: Being held
near the head of whosoever happened to
be reading, it is moro than probable that
by overheating one lobe of the brain the
symmetrical development of that organ
was marred.
That, however, did not much disturb
lis, seeing that neither they nor L were
aware that we carried lobcs of any kind
concealed about our persons.
From time to time, too, as the torch
was passed up and down the line, drops of
burning tor fell upon the hands, arms
and necks of my students, diverting
their attention, nay, causing them at
times to dance up and down the floor.
Even SO, philosopher looking on might
havo dimly perceived how fairly good
and i'll are distributed, on the whole, in |
this best Of all possible worlds, for the
cook and her scullion, seeing these
young theologians capering and sucking
the pitch from their rugged fists, gave
forth peal after peal OF free and Joyous
laughter, so that things averaged up
pretty we'll, after all.
This was not free seminary-far
from 1t. My patrons were drawn from
among the most substantial citizens on
the plantation. They were able to pay
and made them pay. No student Of
divinity could keep scat on that bench |
without bringing me at the close of each |
month dozen new laid eggs, worth, at
that time, 12@ cents; so that eight
months tuition cost exactly 81. Prer0y-
ing was not insisted on. Yet L cannot
recall that on this account l was ever the !
loser by even an egg. AS [ myself
raised chickens, was very glad, too,
when hens were dilatory in thoir laying, |
70 let an account run over and receive ct
the close OF two months young lrrllet.
My wages were sweet-laugh L + ye
professors puffed up with fat salaries, We
school principals rolling in luxury!
My discipline was that of those be-
nighted days. The rod then prevailed
throughout the length and breadth of
the land, nor do [ believe my class
would have valued my instruction at an
egg shell, even had L abolished it. But
such thought could not have occurred
to lad who had not thought it strange
when his own teacher, having asked him
it he was ready with his Virgil, and he
replied, "not yet" had received three
tloggings. The first for not knowing the
Virgil, the two following with intervals
Of rest for the teacher) for not crying.
tasks, ] kept up the circulation in their
backs and shoulders. Neither they nor
L would have heard without ast0niGh-
ment that there was any other way Of
stimulating diligence or quickening the
brain. suppose, however, that my
thrashlngs could not have been very
severe, for remember that they were
the occasion Of great hilarity. This was
especially the case when it came to the
turn of Joe Nelson to recito. Joe was a
famous stutterer He was my youngest
pupil, broad shouldered carpenter, 20
years of age. He was exceedingly con-
oelted and not little vain--conCeited as
to his intellectual gifts and vain of his
ffaSscinations with the plantation damsols.
Ehese qualities, however, did not pre-
vent him from being thoroughly good
tsenow, and he and L were devoted
afFent;s, atTenGs as long rs he lived. But my
a eneohon for him did not save his back
from one single stroke of the peacb enc tree tree
shoot upon which I tightened nv grasp
not t6Sn to wait wal till the close of session and and
costiaatinn nGte out the sum total of morited
not limp. At every trip there sa"C,oo conoo o1o
rap. Punishment trod upon the po RooIn "
What made it specially hard on noor
Joe was that L could not see my waY v0fo 20
allowing him to of, .""J W